Union hill

The Union Hill underground gold mine located at Maldon in Central Victoria is owned and operated by Maldon Resources Pty Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of Octagonal Resources Limited. TheAlliance South gold deposit accessed by the Union Hill Decline is part of EagleHawk Reef at the southern end of what is known as the Central Maldon Shear Zone.The deposit was discovered by Alliance Resources Limited in 2004.

Union Hill Gold Mine Works day Shift Only over Five Days Each Week
The Union Hill Alliance South mine is worked on a single day shift basis that accesses and develops the 1080 level of the Alliance South deposit. Development drilling currently being carried out to futther define the extent of the high grade shoot is expected to allow a second mining crew to be employed at the mine to speed up mine development and production.

Octagonal Resources Revived the Union Hill Decline in 2012
In March 2012, Octagonal Resources Limited began the re-development of the Union Hill Decline at Maldon, that had been on care and maintenance since November 2008. The Union Hill Decline gave access to the Alliance South deposit and allowed the deposit to be initially mined in order to determine the best mining technique for ongong mining activity of the deposit into the future.

The Union Hill mine decline is four metres wide by 4.5 metres deep and runs for two kilometres at a gradient of one in seven. The decline was designed solely to provide access to the Alliance South Shoot that has an Inferred Resouce of 437,000 tonnes of mineralisation with an average grading of 12 grams of gold a tonne, an amount that would be expected to return 182,000 ounces of gold.

Gold Mined at Union Hill Mine at 1100 and 1080 Levels
In January 2014 high grade gold was discovered on the 1100 level at the Alliance South deposit with 38 metres of mining averaging 18.8 grams of gold to a tonne of ore. This find initially occurred over a 3.7 metre wide face but was subsequently extended to a 66 metre strike length giving a grading of 6.8 grams of gold to a tonne of ore. The 1100 level of the undergroung operation was then extended 24 metres past the high grade gold shoot and in doing so intersected a low grade reef averaging 1.6 grams of gold to a tonne of ore. As ongoing drilling didn't discover any further mineralisation the Union Hill Decline then began accessing the 1080 level of the Alliance South Deposit. Now the Union Hill Decline has passed through the 1100 level Alliance South Shoot more focus is to be applied to further development and the ramping up of gold production from the 1080 level.

Ore From the Union Hill Alliance South Deposit is Treated at the Maldon Gold Processing Plant
An amount of 150,000 tonnes of ore a year is to be mined from the Union Hill mine. This ore is to be processed at the CIL (carbon-in-leach) gold processing plant at Maldon. The plant has been completely refurbished to enable it to handle ore from the Union Hill mine along with that from the nearby Pearl Croydon open pit mine.
Triad Minerals built the Maldon gold processing plant in 1987 to process ore from the Union Hill gold deposit. It is capable of processing 20 tonnes of ore an hour and is permitted to operate 24 hours a day seven days a week.
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